Relief for Rocket: Roger Clemens Acquitted of Lying About his Steroid Use

Former pitcher Roger Clemens won 354 games during his 24-year career with the Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees and Houston Astros. But the 49-year-old perennial all-star achieved perhaps the greatest victory of his career off the pitching mound yesterday, when he was acquitted by a federal jury on all charges that he had obstructed and lied to Congress about his steroid use. The charges stemmed from a deposition he made to Congress in 2008 in which he denied ever using steroids. The acquittal came despite testimony from Brian McNamee, his former strength coach, who told the jury he had personally injected steroids into Clemens repeatedly over the years. However, Clemens’ defence team was able to depict McNamee as a “flawed” witness who held a grudge against his former client.

In spite of the acquittal, the debate remains whether he will be absolved in the eyes of baseball writers, who ultimately control whether or not he will be enshrined in Baseball’s Hall of Fame. As Clemens said in his original testimony in 2008: “No matter what we discuss here today, I’m never going to have my name restored.”